By: Joey Mullins
 
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Today, we begin the second season of our series named the S-Club Profile, focusing on former student-athletes and giving updates on what they have been up to since finishing their Samford playing careers. In this month's edition, we will highlight Bobby Jackson, who played football at Samford from 1959 to 1962 and was recently inducted into the Samford Athletics Hall of Fame.
 
Jackson grew up in Forsyth, Ga., and originally attended and played football at South Georgia Junior College. But, after the conference the South Georgia team played in folded, the squad's head coach, Bobby Bowden, was hired as the new head coach at Samford (then Howard College), and Jackson followed his coach to Birmingham.
 
"He brought about 15 of us with him and that was great," Jackson said of coming to Samford with Bowden. "I had never been to Birmingham in my life and had never heard of Howard College. But we came over, about 15 of us and every one of those guys got a degree and every one of them had a successful career. It was pretty amazing, and it was all because of Coach Bowden."
 
Jackson played at Samford for the entire four-year stint that Bowden served as head coach. The teams posted the highest winning percentage of any head coach in the program's history, posting a record of 31-6.
 
Individually, Jackson left school as the program's all-time leading rusher and still ranks seventh today with 2,084 yards, but his 7.3 yards per carry average is still a school record. Jackson, however, did not just play on offense. He also played defensive back on defense, and he served on special teams as well. But, as Jackson pointed out, that was the way the game was played back then.
 
"Everybody did that," Jackson said. "Back in that day, that was what they called single-platoon football. In other words, you did not substitute. The rules kind of changed a little bit during the four years I was at Howard, they got a little more lenient with substitutions in '62, which was my last season. In '59 and '60 and I think in '61, unless you got hurt, everybody played the whole game."
 
As a sophomore in 1960, Jackson averaged a school-record 9.6 yards per carry. He was also named a two-time All-American following his final two seasons at the school.
 
Following graduation from Samford, Jackson talked to Bowden about coaching at Samford once he earned his master's degree from Peabody College, which is now a part of Vanderbilt University. Bowden, however, accepted an assistant coaching position at Florida State, and Jackson's spot on the Samford staff was gone.
 
Jackson, however, found a job in Birmingham on the football and track coaching staffs at Shades Valley High School. Jackson said Shades Valley was a good place to start his coaching career.
 
"Shades Valley had an opening, and I was dating my wife to be at that time, and she was still at Howard, so I didn't want to get too far away," Jackson said. "I felt like Shades Valley was a good job, and it was. I took the job at Shades Valley for two years."
 
While he was at Shades Valley, Jackson had kept in touch with Bowden. That relationship led to him getting a foot in the door to coaching at the college level. Bowden talked to then FSU head coach Bill Peterson and helped Jackson attain a volunteer position on the Seminoles' staff.
 
"He talked to him, and we talked later, and he said Coach Peterson said if you're crazy enough to come down and work for free then come on," Jackson said. "So, I went down and worked one season from August to December for free."
 
Following his volunteer season in 1965, Bowden and Don James, who went on to become a successful head coach at Washington, left the staff creating a full-time opening for Jackson. In January of 1966, Jackson was hired as a full-time assistant coach at Florida State.
 
He stayed at FSU through the 1969 season, and that was followed by stops at Kansas State (1970-74), Louisville (1975-76) and Tennessee (1977-82). During those times, he served as the defensive coordinator at some point during his stays at all three schools.
 
Jackson then broke into the professional coaching ranks with the Atlanta Falcons from 1983-86. Just like he did at the college level, he would go on to have a highly successful career as an NFL coach. After working for the Falcons, he spent time on the staffs of the San Diego Chargers (1987-91), Phoenix Cardinals (1992-93), Washington Redskins (1994-99), St. Louis Rams (2000-02) and Miami Dolphins (2007).
 
One of the highlights of his career was when he was a part of the 2001 St. Louis Rams staff and led the team to a Super Bowl appearance. Jackson said, while it was great to reach the Super Bowl, he did not like all the extra hype surrounding the game.
 
"There's too much hype for me, I didn't like it," Jackson said. "That was the year of 9/11, so they postponed a game after that, and they made it up at the end of the year. Normally you have two weeks after the last playoff game to the Super Bowl, but we only had one week that year because if 9/11. So, that made it where it was not as much hype, but it was still way too much hype for me. All the crazy stuff, interviewing, TV stuff and all that. I'm old school. I like to coach and get it going, and all that hoopla, I don't like it a whole lot."
 
During a long coaching career, Jackson has coached at all levels, high school, college and the NFL. He said, when it boils down to it, to him, coaching is the same, regardless of the level. 
 
"I loved all of it, because coaching is coaching," Jackson said. "The only difference I saw, particularly between college and the NFL, was the cars in the parking lot. In the NFL, there were Mercedes and all kinds of expensive vehicles. I think it's that way now in college, but it wasn't that way when I was coaching in college."
 
One of the biggest influences on Jackson's coaching career was Bowden, the coach he played for in college and who helped him get his first college coaching position. When asked about what he learned most from Bowden, it was not just about football.
 
"Number one, I learned what a Christian man was and was supposed to be," Jackson said. "I learned that you didn't have to cuss to be tough. Coach Bowden was one of the toughest coaches that I've ever been around, but he didn't cuss. Dadgummit was his cuss word, I guess. And I learned techniques and fundamentals. He was a stickler on fundamentals, blocking and tackling. Everything had to be just exactly right, you know. He demanded that you do it right."
 
Last month, Jackson joined his former coach as a member of the Samford Athletics Hall of Fame. At the ceremony in early August, Jackson expressed his excitement at being chosen for the Hall of Fame.
 
"This is a thrill," Jackson said. "I am excited and humbled. The thing that I am most proud of is that I am the first player under Coach Bowden that has been given this honor, so I am thankful for that."
 
For more information on the S-Club, contact Hal Langston at hlangst1@samford.edu. For giving opportunities, please contact Maggie Folker at mrountr1@samford.edu.